GoM approves raising income ceiling for OBC quota

A proposal for raising from Rs 4.5 lakh to Rs 6 lakh the annual income ceiling for people from Other Backward Castes (OBCs) to be eligible for reservations in jobs and educational institutions has been accepted by the Group of Ministers (GoM).

The matter will now be moved for clearance from the Union Cabinet, officials said on Monday.

The GoM headed by finance minister P Chidambaram recently gave its consent to the social justice ministry's proposal that the revised income ceiling for creamy layer should be fixed at Rs 6 lakh annually, they said.

The ministry had earlier also sought increasing the creamy layer income ceiling to Rs 12 lakh in urban areas and Rs 9 lakh in rural areas, which was rejected by the government.

The ministry then proposed raising the ceiling to Rs 7 lakh, so that more people from the community can benefit.

Other members in the GoM included Union human resource development minister MM Pallam Raju, law minister Ashwani Kumar, social justice and empowerment minister Kumari Selja and minister of state (MoS) in Prime Minister's Office (PMO) V Narayanasamy.

The present income ceiling for creamy layer is Rs 4.5 lakh annually.

The issue was put before the GoM after the Union Cabinet deferred a proposal by the SJ&E Ministry to raise the income ceiling from Rs 4.5 lakh per annum last year in June.

The ceiling was raised from Rs 2.5 lakh to above Rs 4.5 lakh in 2008, but even that could not achieve the desired result of filling the available vacancies in jobs and educational institutions under the OBC category.